A search was carried out at my client's premises in March 2025 and the notice quotes section 158BC. My whole file of authority is on section 153A. Which law actually applies to him?
Chapter XIV-B, as substituted by section 49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 with effect from 1 September 2024. Section 158BA(1) applies the revived Chapter to every search initiated under section 132, and every requisition under section 132A, on or after 1 September 2024, and to nothing earlier. Section 153A cannot apply to him at all: sub-section (1) of that section is by its own words confined to a search initiated after 31 May 2003 but on or before 31 March 2021.
Decided by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions (Not applicable — statutory text) on 2024-09-01, reported as Income-tax Act 1961, Chapter XIV-B, substituted by s.49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 (Act No. 15 of 2024) w.e.f. 1 September 2024 and amended by the Finance Act 2025 (Act No. 7 of 2025) w.r.e.f. 1 September 2024; s.152(3) inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024; s.158BI omitted by the Finance Act 2025 w.r.e.f. 1 September 2024. It bears on section 158BA, section 158B, section 158BH, section 158BI, section 153A, section 153C, section 152(3), section 152(4), section 132, section 132A, section 113 of the Income Tax Act 1961, in Search, Survey & Block Assessment, Assessment & Scrutiny, Reassessment & Reopening and How Tax Law Is Read matters.
There are not two regimes but four, and the one most practitioners assume is the middle one closed five years ago. (i) A search after 30 June 1995 and up to 31 May 2003 is governed by Chapter XIV-B as it stood before its substitution — the 1995 Chapter, which is still generating Tribunal orders in 2026 and which is NOT the same text as the revived Chapter. (ii) A search after 31 May 2003 but on or before 31 March 2021 is governed by section 153A and, for the other person, section 153C. The cut-off for the other person is drafted differently: section 153C(1) carries no date, and it is section 153C(3) that provides that 'Nothing contained in this section shall apply in relation to a search initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets requisitioned under section 132A on or after the 1st day of April, 2021.' (iii) A search initiated on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024 is governed by neither: section 152(3), inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, provides that where a search under section 132, a requisition under section 132A or a survey under section 133A (other than sub-section (2A)) is on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024, sections 147 to 151 apply as they stood immediately before the commencement of that Act — so the assessment is a reassessment under section 148, not a search assessment. (iv) A search initiated on or after 1 September 2024 goes to the revived Chapter XIV-B. That means the library's large body of section 153A authority — Kabul Chawla, Abhisar Buildwell, Ojjus Medicare, Jasjit Singh — is authority about a provision that does not govern any search after 31 March 2021. Handing it to a client with a 2025 search is not merely unhelpful; it points him at a section that cannot be invoked against him.
Binding on the department, not on the assessee or the courts. An assessee may rely on a circular that is beneficial to them.
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Not a case. Section 49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 substituted a new Chapter XIV-B, 'Special Procedure for Assessment of Search Cases', for the existing Chapter with effect from 1 September 2024. Section 158BA(1) of the substituted Chapter opens: 'Notwithstanding anything in any other provisions of this Act, where on or after the 1st day of September, 2024, a search is initiated under section 132, or books of account, other documents or any assets are requisitioned under section 132A, in the case of any person, then, the Assessing Officer shall proceed to assess or reassess the total undisclosed income of the block period in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.' Section 153A(1) applies where a search is initiated or a requisition made 'after the 31st day of May, 2003 but on or before the 31st day of March, 2021'. Section 152(3), inserted by the same Finance Act, provides that where a search under section 132, a requisition under section 132A or a survey under section 133A (other than under sub-section (2A)) is initiated, made or conducted on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024, the provisions of sections 147 to 151 apply as they stood immediately before the commencement of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024; section 152(4) makes a parallel saving where, in any other case, a notice under section 148 was issued or an order under section 148A(d) was passed before 1 September 2024. Section 158BI, which before the substitution had provided that Chapter XIV-B was not to apply to a search initiated after 31 May 2003, was replaced along with the rest of the Chapter on 1 September 2024; the section that then stood in the substituted Chapter was omitted by the Finance Act 2025 with retrospective effect from 1 September 2024, so that nothing now numbered 158BI has ever had operative effect. The current departmental page prints only '158BI. [Omitted by the Finance Act, 2025, w.r.e.f.1-9-2024.]' under the marginal note 'Chapter not to apply in certain circumstances'; the text of the version inserted in 2024 and omitted in 2025 could not be read on any route.
Statutory position — no holding is asserted; this entry reproduces statutory text. The revived Chapter XIV-B governs a search initiated, or a requisition made, on or after 1 September 2024, and only such a search or requisition. Section 153A governs a search after 31 May 2003 and on or before 31 March 2021. A search between 1 April 2021 and 31 August 2024 falls to sections 147 to 151 as they stood before the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, by force of section 152(3). A search up to 31 May 2003 remains governed by Chapter XIV-B as it stood before the 2024 substitution.
Not a judicial route. The scheme is achieved by three drafting devices operating together. First, the substituted section 158BA(1) carries its own commencement limb ('where on or after the 1st day of September, 2024'), so the Chapter needs no separate switch and section 158BI became redundant and was omitted. Second, section 153A(1) carries a closing limb ('but on or before the 31st day of March, 2021') inserted by the Finance Act 2021, which is why the section died five years before the block assessment came back. Third, section 152(3) is a saving provision, not a charging one: it freezes the pre-2024 reassessment code for the three-and-a-half year window in between, so that a search in that window is worked as a section 148 reassessment on the old law rather than under either search-specific code. Section 158BH then re-imports the rest of the Act into a block assessment save as otherwise provided in the Chapter.
Notwithstanding anything in any other provisions of this Act, where on or after the 1st day of September, 2024, a search is initiated under section 132, or books of account, other documents or any assets are requisitioned under section 132A, in the case of any person, then, the Assessing Officer shall proceed to assess or reassess the total undisclosed income of the block period in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.
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Handle my notice → Ask a CA on WhatsAppChapter XIV-B, as substituted by section 49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 with effect from 1 September 2024. Section 158BA(1) applies the revived Chapter to every search initiated under section 132, and every requisition under section 132A, on or after 1 September 2024, and to nothing earlier. Section 153A cannot apply to him at all: sub-section (1) of that section is by its own words confined to a search initiated after 31 May 2003 but on or before 31 March 2021. This was decided by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions (Not applicable — statutory text) and bears on section 158BA, section 158B, section 158BH, section 158BI, section 153A, section 153C, section 152(3), section 152(4), section 132, section 132A, section 113 of the Income Tax Act 1961. It is reported as Income-tax Act 1961, Chapter XIV-B, substituted by s.49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 (Act No. 15 of 2024) w.e.f. 1 September 2024 and amended by the Finance Act 2025 (Act No. 7 of 2025) w.r.e.f. 1 September 2024; s.152(3) inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024; s.158BI omitted by the Finance Act 2025 w.r.e.f. 1 September 2024. There are not two regimes but four, and the one most practitioners assume is the middle one closed five years ago. (i) A search after 30 June 1995 and up to 31 May 2003 is governed by Chapter XIV-B as it stood before its substitution — the 1995 Chapter, which is still generating Tribunal orders in 2026 and which is NOT the same text as the revived Chapter. (ii) A search after 31 May 2003 but on or before 31 March 2021 is governed by section 153A and, for the other person, section 153C. The cut-off for the other person is drafted differently: section 153C(1) carries no date, and it is section 153C(3) that provides that 'Nothing contained in this section shall apply in relation to a search initiated under section 132 or books of account, other documents or any assets requisitioned under section 132A on or after the 1st day of April, 2021.' (iii) A search initiated on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024 is governed by neither: section 152(3), inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, provides that where a search under section 132, a requisition under section 132A or a survey under section 133A (other than sub-section (2A)) is on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024, sections 147 to 151 apply as they stood immediately before the commencement of that Act — so the assessment is a reassessment under section 148, not a search assessment. (iv) A search initiated on or after 1 September 2024 goes to the revived Chapter XIV-B. That means the library's large body of section 153A authority — Kabul Chawla, Abhisar Buildwell, Ojjus Medicare, Jasjit Singh — is authority about a provision that does not govern any search after 31 March 2021. Handing it to a client with a 2025 search is not merely unhelpful; it points him at a section that cannot be invoked against him. If it applies to you, the first step is this: Before anything else, fix two dates from the primary record: the date the first authorisation under section 132 was executed (the date of initiation of the search) and the date of execution of the LAST authorisation, taken from the last panchnama. Both are operative facts under the revived Chapter — the first fixes the regime, the second fixes the end of the block period and the start of limitation.
Not a case. Section 49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 substituted a new Chapter XIV-B, 'Special Procedure for Assessment of Search Cases', for the existing Chapter with effect from 1 September 2024. Section 158BA(1) of the substituted Chapter opens: 'Notwithstanding anything in any other provisions of this Act, where on or after the 1st day of September, 2024, a search is initiated under section 132, or books of account, other documents or any assets are requisitioned under section 132A, in the case of any person, then, the Assessing Officer shall proceed to assess or reassess the total undisclosed income of the block period in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.' Section 153A(1) applies where a search is initiated or a requisition made 'after the 31st day of May, 2003 but on or before the 31st day of March, 2021'. Section 152(3), inserted by the same Finance Act, provides that where a search under section 132, a requisition under section 132A or a survey under section 133A (other than under sub-section (2A)) is initiated, made or conducted on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024, the provisions of sections 147 to 151 apply as they stood immediately before the commencement of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024; section 152(4) makes a parallel saving where, in any other case, a notice under section 148 was issued or an order under section 148A(d) was passed before 1 September 2024. Section 158BI, which before the substitution had provided that Chapter XIV-B was not to apply to a search initiated after 31 May 2003, was replaced along with the rest of the Chapter on 1 September 2024; the section that then stood in the substituted Chapter was omitted by the Finance Act 2025 with retrospective effect from 1 September 2024, so that nothing now numbered 158BI has ever had operative effect. The current departmental page prints only '158BI. [Omitted by the Finance Act, 2025, w.r.e.f.1-9-2024.]' under the marginal note 'Chapter not to apply in certain circumstances'; the text of the version inserted in 2024 and omitted in 2025 could not be read on any route. The matter was decided on 2024-09-01 by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions (Not applicable — statutory text). On those facts the CBDT Circulars & Instructions held as follows. Statutory position — no holding is asserted; this entry reproduces statutory text. The revived Chapter XIV-B governs a search initiated, or a requisition made, on or after 1 September 2024, and only such a search or requisition. Section 153A governs a search after 31 May 2003 and on or before 31 March 2021. A search between 1 April 2021 and 31 August 2024 falls to sections 147 to 151 as they stood before the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, by force of section 152(3). A search up to 31 May 2003 remains governed by Chapter XIV-B as it stood before the 2024 substitution.
Not a judicial route. The scheme is achieved by three drafting devices operating together. First, the substituted section 158BA(1) carries its own commencement limb ('where on or after the 1st day of September, 2024'), so the Chapter needs no separate switch and section 158BI became redundant and was omitted. Second, section 153A(1) carries a closing limb ('but on or before the 31st day of March, 2021') inserted by the Finance Act 2021, which is why the section died five years before the block assessment came back. Third, section 152(3) is a saving provision, not a charging one: it freezes the pre-2024 reassessment code for the three-and-a-half year window in between, so that a search in that window is worked as a section 148 reassessment on the old law rather than under either search-specific code. Section 158BH then re-imports the rest of the Act into a block assessment save as otherwise provided in the Chapter. In the words reproduced by the source cited on this page: "Notwithstanding anything in any other provisions of this Act, where on or after the 1st day of September, 2024, a search is initiated under section 132, or books of account, other documents or any assets are requisitioned under section 132A, in the case of any person, then, the Assessing Officer shall proceed to assess or reassess the total undisclosed income of the block period in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter."
It was decided by the CBDT Circulars & Instructions on 2024-09-01 and is reported as Income-tax Act 1961, Chapter XIV-B, substituted by s.49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 (Act No. 15 of 2024) w.e.f. 1 September 2024 and amended by the Finance Act 2025 (Act No. 7 of 2025) w.r.e.f. 1 September 2024; s.152(3) inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024; s.158BI omitted by the Finance Act 2025 w.r.e.f. 1 September 2024. Binding on the department, not on the assessee or the courts. An assessee may rely on a circular that is beneficial to them. A CBDT circular or instruction binds officers of the department but not the assessee and not the courts. Where a circular helps you, you may hold the department to it. Where it hurts you, it cannot override the Act or a judgment. On section 158BA, section 158B, section 158BH, section 158BI, section 153A, section 153C, section 152(3), section 152(4), section 132, section 132A, section 113, the practical question is whether the facts of your own notice match the facts of this case closely enough for the same rule to apply.
It cuts both ways and is cited by both sides. Statutory position — no holding is asserted; this entry reproduces statutory text. The revived Chapter XIV-B governs a search initiated, or a requisition made, on or after 1 September 2024, and only such a search or requisition. Section 153A governs a search after 31 May 2003 and on or before 31 March 2021. A search between 1 April 2021 and 31 August 2024 falls to sections 147 to 151 as they stood before the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, by force of section 152(3). A search up to 31 May 2003 remains governed by Chapter XIV-B as it stood before the 2024 substitution. It arises in Search, Survey & Block Assessment, Assessment & Scrutiny, Reassessment & Reopening and How Tax Law Is Read matters, on section 158BA, section 158B, section 158BH, section 158BI, section 153A, section 153C, section 152(3), section 152(4), section 132, section 132A, section 113 of the Income Tax Act 1961, and was decided by Not applicable — statutory text. Before relying on it, read the source linked on this page and check whether it has since been distinguished, overruled or overtaken by an amendment to the Income Tax Act. In practice the steps that follow from it are these. Put the search date against the four windows above and say in terms, in the first paragraph of the reply, which regime you say applies. If the department has issued the wrong notice — a section 153A notice for a 2025 search, or a section 158BC notice for a 2023 search — take that as a jurisdictional ground. For a search on or after 1 April 2021 but before 1 September 2024, work the case as a reassessment under the pre-Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 sections 147 to 151 by force of section 152(3), and check the first proviso to section 149(1), which imports the section 153A and 153C time limits as they stood before the Finance Act 2021. Do not cite section 153A authority as if it governed a post-1 September 2024 search. Where the point you need has only been decided under section 153A, say so expressly and argue by analogy on the wording of section 158BB, which is different. Note that section 158BI has been omitted by the Finance Act 2025 with retrospective effect from 1 September 2024. Nothing turns on it now: the cut-off lives in section 158BA(1) itself. Section 158BH keeps every other provision of the Act alive for a block assessment save as otherwise provided in the Chapter, so the general machinery — sections 142, 143(2), 144, 145, 156, 220, 246A, 253 — continues to apply unless the Chapter displaces it.
Still good law. This is the amending law, not a decision about it. In force from 1 September 2024, as amended by the Finance Act 2025 with retrospective effect from the same date. Only one decision arising UNDER the revived Chapter was located on a genuine search of indiankanoon on 8 September 2026: Saroj Kumar Sahoo v National Faceless Assessment Centre (Orissa High Court, 18 February 2026), which is already in this library. Phrase searches on 'assess or reassess the total undisclosed income of the block period', 'shall abate and shall be deemed to have been abated' and 'not exceeding a period of sixty days' with 'block period' each returned that judgment and, at most, two 2026 Tribunal orders which reproduce the revived text but are themselves governed by the 1995 Chapter. I did not check for any writ challenge to the constitutionality of the revived Chapter. No source could be cited for that finding. Checking whether an authority still stands matters as much as knowing what it held: a decision may be overruled on one point and survive on another, or the provision it interprets may have been amended since. Read the source and the editor's note on this page before relying on it in a reply to an Assessing Officer or in an appeal.
The brief for this slice described three regimes, with section 153A running from 1 June 2003 to 31 August 2024. That is wrong, and the error matters. Two separate departmental section pages for section 153A — one stamped Year 2024 (No. 1) and one stamped Year 2025 — both print sub-section (1) as applying to a search 'after the 31st day of May, 2003 but on or before the 31st day of March, 2021'. An archived Year 2019 page prints the same words without the closing limb, which dates the closing limb to the Finance Act 2021. The gap between 1 April 2021 and 31 August 2024 is filled by section 152(3), which I read on two departmental pages (Year 2024 (No. 2) and Year 2025) and, independently, reproduced verbatim inside the Gujarat High Court's judgment in Batukbhai Premjibhai Kalathiya v ITO dated 20 January 2026. Section 158BI: the current departmental page (Year 2026) prints only '158BI. [Omitted by the Finance Act, 2025, w.r.e.f.1-9-2024.]'. I could not read the text of section 158BI as it stood between 1 September 2024 and that omission, and I did not find a second route for the omission itself. The department's undated /w/section-158ba, /w/section-158ba-1 to -5 and /w/section-158b, -33, -34, -38 pages are ARCHIVED versions still printing the 1995 Chapter; they carry Year stamps between 2000 and 2023 and must never be used to state the present law. Indiankanoon's index suggests the Income-tax Act 2025 re-enacts these provisions (its section 292 answers to section 158BA), but this library writes against the 1961 Act and I did not verify that numbering. This is a statutory entry and not a decision: 'bench' and 'favours' carry no case values, 'tier' is set to 'cbdt' because the library's fixed tier vocabulary has no value for a statutory entry and the source is the Income-tax Department's own section pages rather than a Board circular, and 'decided_on' is not a date of decision but the date the substituted Chapter XIV-B commences, 1 September 2024. This library shows the verification state of every entry openly. This entry has not yet been read in full by a chartered accountant. The summary reflects the sources listed on this page. Read the source before you rely on it in a reply to an Assessing Officer or in an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) or the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
Statutory position — no holding is asserted; this entry reproduces statutory text. The revived Chapter XIV-B governs a search initiated, or a requisition made, on or after 1 September 2024, and only such a search or requisition. Section 153A governs a search after 31 May 2003 and on or before 31 March 2021. A search between 1 April 2021 and 31 August 2024 falls to sections 147 to 151 as they stood before the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, by force of section 152(3). A search up to 31 May 2003 remains governed by Chapter XIV-B as it stood before the 2024 substitution.
TaxSphere, “Statutory position — which regime governs a search: the four dating windows and the revived Chapter XIV-B from 1 September 2024”, https://taxnotice.vittsphere.com/caselaw/case/block-assessment-revived-which-regime-governs-which-search-date/ (validity last checked 2026-09-08)
The judgment itself is a government work and may be quoted freely. The summary, the validity note and the reasoning on this page are this library's own writing: quote them with attribution, and please do not present either as the words of the court — this page keeps the two apart and so should a quotation of it.
Every entry in this library links to where it was found, so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
My client was searched in May 2024 and has a section 148 notice for assessment year 2015-16. Which limitation applies, and is the notice good?
My scrutiny assessment was still running when they searched me in November 2024. Section 158BA(2) says a pending assessment abates. Can I have the assessment order quashed in a writ on that ground alone?
The search on my client began on 12 February 2025 and the last panchnama is dated 9 April 2025. What exactly is the block period, and which date ends it?
The appeal has been decided against me. Can I now file a section 154 application raising the point I dropped in that appeal?
